Denver, CO – A four-day Race and Homelessness Vigil began early Wednesday morning opposite the Denver City and County Building. It began primarily as a space to educate the local community on how Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) are disproportionately affected by houselessness,…
Denver, CO – On Thursday morning, Denver city employees including police officers will be telling the more than 100 unhoused people living in the downtown city blocks near the homeless shelters that they need to pack up and move. The city posted notices around the…
Denver, CO – The day after President Donald Trump descended on Colorado Springs Thursday for a rally, Robert Marbut Jr., the new U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) Director, and Housing Secretary Ben Carson are reportedly meeting with Denver’s Mayor Michael Hancock today, February 21.…
Denver, CO – For nearly eight years Denver police officers, public works employees, park rangers, and occasionally inmates have been carrying out and enforcing the Unauthorized Camping Ordinance (camping ban) signed into law by Mayor Michael Hancock during his first term in 2012. When investigating…
Denver, CO – Jerry Burton has been living on and off the streets since around 1983 when he left the Marine Corps. During his periods of surviving outside in Denver, he has received three tickets for violating the Unauthorized Camping Ordinance, also known as the…
Denver, CO – In the afternoon of October 21, 2019, local advocacy group Denver Homeless Out Loud (DHOL), along with other social justice and human rights groups, held a rally outside City Hall to continue to demand that the city government take action in support…
Denver, CO – In less than a month, Denver residents will get to vote on an unprecedented ballot initiative in the United States, which would effectively make it illegal to criminalize people who are without housing. To substantiate I-300, also known as the Right to…
Denver, CO – For at least two years, the city of Denver has been contracting Custom Environmental Services, Inc. (CES) to assist in clearing out camps of people without housing. Unicorn Riot filed Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) requests and received about 50 invoices sent…
Denver, CO – On July 9 and 12, 2018, Denver Homeless Out Loud (DHOL), an advocacy group for people without housing, published two videos documenting Denver police and city workers seizing people’s belongings and throwing them away; also known as “sweeps.”
These ongoing sweeps continue…
Denver, CO – The class-action lawsuit against Denver, which claims that the city has been repeatedly violating the constitutional rights of residents without housing, was officially ordered to move forward by Judge William Martínez on March 26, 2018, when he denied the motions for summary…
UPDATE: After seven hours of testimony including over 100 people testifying in favor of the Homeless Bill of Rights and about five testifying against, the bill was voted down for the fourth year in a row with a vote of 10-3.
Denver, CO – For…
Denver, CO – On Tuesday, November 7, 2017, despite below freezing temperatures and snowfall, daily sweeps of unhoused Denver residents continued.
As usual, Denver police, city workers, and park rangers descended on people keeping warm under blankets and inside their tents and told them to…
UPDATE (8/24/17 at 11:30 AM MDT): On Thursday morning during the press conference outside the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse in Denver, Terese Howard spoke to a group of supporters and fellow activists about the city’s back-tracking:
Because of a lot of the public pressure that has ensued…
Denver, CO – On Monday morning, August 14, 2017, Denver Homeless Out Loud, along with other advocacy groups and lawyers, held a press conference outside the Denver City and County Building (City Hall) to shed light on new developments in the class-action lawsuit against the…
Denver, CO – On Friday, May 19, 2017, people living without housing in downtown Denver were approached by police and given the equivalent of eviction notices. These interactions with the Denver police are not new or surprising for unhoused residents, but these most recent interactions…
Denver, CO – On Thursday, April 27, 2017, the United States District Court of Colorado, Judge William J. Martinez, certified class-action status for the lawsuit filed on August 25, 2016 on behalf of unhoused residents in Denver whose rights have been repeatedly violated during the…
Denver, CO – [UPDATE: Right to Rest failed to pass vote in Colorado Legislature, full livestream below – 4.20.17] On Wednesday, April 5, 2017, after a day and a half of testimony, the jury for Denver’s first camping ban trial found the three co-defendants guilty.…
UPDATE – 4/5/17: Wednesday afternoon, the jury announced that they had found all three co-defendants guilty of violating the Unauthorized Camping Ordinance. Denverite reports:
Jerry Burton, Randy Russell and Terese Howard were each charged with violating Denver’s ban on urban camping and interference with a…
Denver, CO – After Mayor Michael Hancock released a statement on Saturday, December 10th, about a supposed policy change to the confiscations of people’s survival gear including blankets and tents, over twenty five news outlets have praised him for this apparent temporary winter-month “end” to…